Due to the rocking motion of floating vessels such as ships, any apparatus placed on a ship must be firmly fixed to avoid damaging the apparatus, the ship, or some other component supported by the ship. Typically, fastening involves either bolting or welding components directly to the structure of the ship or bolting or welding mounting members to the ship and then attaching the apparatus to the mounting members. The same requirement applies to chairs which, particularly with respect to pleasure boats and passenger or ferry boats, occupy a great deal of space often both on the exposed deck and down under within the internal area of a ship. All types of boats or ships include various forms of chairs, whether they are used merely for the purpose of providing a passenger with a place to sit or for providing an operator of the ship a seating location with respect to instruments or other equipment.
The prior art chairs used in this environment are usually permanently fixed to the ship such as by welding the support portion of the chair to the ship body or by bolting the chairs to the ship deck such that they are not readily removable (with respect to the latter, particularly after a period of time when the harsh environment associated with ships renders the fastening area rusted or corroded). Thus, with respect to the prior art chairs that are welded, bolted or otherwise not readily releasable from position, once these chairs are in position, they permanently occupy that space of the ship. This significantly reduces the effective space of a ship, which space is often originally restricted in size, as the deck or other area of the ship becomes more narrow and smaller due to the placement of one or more fixed chairs. This limited space often gives an uncomfortable feeling to those who live and work in the crowded space of a ship over the years. Furthermore, the fixed chairs can only be used at specific positions which may not be a convenient location with respect to ongoing activity on board the ship, and their installation damages the original state of the ship.
The fact that a chair must be provided for each place where a chair might be necessary (e.g., providing for maximum seating during a particular season or period of time where, in other seasons or periods of time, there might be many more seats than required) increases the number of chairs needed and the weight load on a ship and, correspondingly, the fuel requirements for a ship. In an effort to avoid the above drawbacks, instead of fixed chairs, ordinary movable chairs have been used. However, both from a passenger safety and chair or ship damage standpoint, it is not desirable to have non-secured chairs of this sort.